After Weekes had related his adventures, three parties
were despatched to beat up the coast in search of
the unfortunate islander. They returned at night
without success, though they had used the utmost diligence.
On the following day the search was resumed, and the
poor fellow was at length discovered lying beneath
a group of rocks, his legs swollen, his feet torn
and bloody from walking through bushes and briars,
and himself half-dead with cold, hunger, and fatigue.
Weekes and this islander were the only survivors of
the crew of the jolly-boat, and no trace was ever
discovered of Fox and his party. Thus eight men
were lost on the first approach to the coast; a commencement
that cast a gloom over the spirits of the whole party,
and was regarded by some of the superstitious as an
omen that boded no good to the enterprise.

Towards night the Sandwich Islanders went on shore,
to bury the body of their unfortunate countryman who
had perished in the boat. On arriving at the
place where it had been left, they dug a grave in the
sand, in which they deposited the corpse, with a biscuit
under one of the arms, some lard under the chin, and
a small quantity of tobacco, as provisions for its
journey in the land of spirits. Having covered
the body with sand and flints, they kneeled along
the grave in a double row, with their faces turned
to the east, while one who officiated as a priest
sprinkled them with water from a hat. In so doing
he recited a kind of prayer or invocation, to which,
at intervals, the others made responses. Such
were the simple rites performed by these poor savages
at the grave of their comrade on the shores of a strange
land; and when these were done, they rose and returned
in silence to the ship, without once casting a look
behind.

CHAPTER VIII.

Mouth of the Columbia.—­The
Native Tribes.—­Their Fishing.—­
Their Canoes.—­Bold
Navigators—­Equestrian Indians and
Piscatory Indians, Difference
in Their Physical
Organization.—­Search
for a Trading Site.—­Expedition of
M’Dougal and David
Stuart-Comcomly, the One-Eyed Chieftain.—­
Influence of Wealth
in Savage Life.—­Slavery Among the
Natives.-An Aristocracy
of Flatheads.-Hospitality Among the
Chinooks—­Comcomly’s
Daughter.—­Her Conquest.

The Columbia, or Oregon, for the distance of thirty
or forty miles from its entrance into the sea, is,
properly speaking, a mere estuary, indented by deep
bays so as to vary from three to seven miles in width;
and is rendered extremely intricate and dangerous by
shoals reaching nearly from shore to shore, on which,
at times, the winds and currents produce foaming and
tumultuous breakers. The mouth of the river proper
is but about half a mile wide, formed by the contracting
shores of the estuary. The entrance from the
sea, as we have already observed, is bounded on the
south side by a flat sandy spit of land, stretching